A mum who lost her son in horrific circumstances delivered an emotional plea to youngsters.
Lindsey Allison, 44, told her eldest boy she loved him before Taylor Black went to a birthday party. But the 18-year-old university student never returned home after being stabbed 64 times – including 40 blows to the head.
It is approaching five years since the senseless murder and Lindsey said she is no longer the carefree and outgoing person she used to be.
And appealing to youngsters, she told the Mirror: “I can’t stress enough for anybody who even thinks about picking up a knife in 2025 how final this is. The effects are all too real and irreversible and once you have done this you cannot take it back.
“I beg you please think about it and the lasting effects your actions will have not just on the victim but each and every one of the loved ones left behind – life for them will forever be changed just like ours.”
Mum’s two heartbreaking words to describe thug who murdered son by stabbing him 40 times
The university student was just 18-years-old when he died
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Image:
Lindsey Allison)
Lindsey pictured with her sons Shae and Taylor
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Image:
Lindsey Allison)
Taylor, who once had ambitions of being a journalist, was left with a knife embedded in his skull in one the UK’s hidden knife crime hotspots.
The computer science student returned to Stockton-on Tees, Durham, in February 2020, to visit his mum and younger brother, Shae, now 12. He asked his mum whether she wanted to watch a film for the night before remembering a birthday party.
But the morning after, Taylor went to the home of former pal, Nathan Costello, who he knew from martial arts training. There, the man in his 30s plunged a knife into his chest before repeatedly targeting his skull.
Cowardly Costello claimed to not remember the murder despite admitting it in text messages. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years.
Nathan Costello was caged after being found guilty of murder
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Cleveland Police)
During the trial, Lindsey found the body of her brother, Niki, who took his own life after harrowing details emerged in court.
And speaking about her son’s killer, Lindsey said: “Taylor’s murderer has never offered any remorse whatsoever, not even in the courtroom.
“In fact, he looked smug like he had accomplished what he had intended to do and he hasn’t shown any remorse in the days and years that have followed. Not that I want any apologies from him, nothing he could ever say or do would ever make any of this better.
“These days he doesn’t even cross my mind. He doesn’t deserve a place in my mind, the only space there is room for beautiful memories I have of my son and brother and I will not let the monster who took away my beautiful son define the childhood of my other beautiful boy.
“My only hope I have for the vile man who took my boy away is that he is rotting away in his cell and is living the worst life possible.”
Speaking last year, Det Chf Insp Hodgson, of Cleveland Police, said knife crime figures were reducing in the area, but that it was still the third highest crime rate in the country.
Lindsey Allison with her youngest son Shae
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Image:
Lindsey Allison)
Noting a 29% reduction in knife crime in Stockton town centre, close to where Taylor was murdered, he said: “Cleveland Police has one of the highest knife crime rates in the country. We’re currently third highest per population of 1,000.
“We were second highest, things are moving in the right direction slowly but obviously it’s not where we want to be.”
Unfortunately for Lindsey, her son’s murder will never be undone, and now she focuses on remembering him in the right way.
“My beautiful son was brutally stabbed to death,” she told us. “Taylor was the most kind, caring, funny and intelligent boy who was loved by everyone.
“If you were lucky enough to have him as a friend he would be there for you in an instant, he would drop anything he was doing whether it was day or night, it didn’t matter to Taylor.
“He wasn’t just my son he was my best friend and while I know that all mothers think their child is perfect, Taylor really was in every single way. He brought a little bit of heaven to this world everyday and he will forever be loved and missed by all who knew him.”